WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Bakeries all across Wisconsin are busy selling paczki’s on Fat Tuesday. The Polish donut has been a staple to eat in the days before Lent begins for generations.
In order to prepare for the rush of sales, bakeries have to do a lot of extra work to make everything come together.
At Aggie’s Bakery in West Allis, staff worked overtime to make sure they can produce nearly 10,000 paczkis for Fat Tuesday. Karen Mueller runs the deep fryer at Aggie’s and has been pulling 15-hour days in order to get ready.
Mueller said it is a lot of work, but she appreciated knowing how much people enjoy her efforts.
“It’s nice when you get compliments on how good they are— how nice they look,” said Mueller as she fried another batch.
For Aggie’s Bakery owner Rachel Schmidbauer, the efforts of her staff mean a lot.
“These people take time away from their families to come make sure that this is a success for the business, which is more than I could ever ask,” said Schmidbauer.
“We do everything we can to take care of them. It is long, hard hours,” she added.
Schmidbauer said the bakery has sold more than 9,000 paczkis for pre-order and plans to produce at least 1,000 additional paczkis for walk in service.
